What are AIPMO IPMO PMO Certifications?

The Association for International PMOs (AIPMO) is a Swiss based organisation founded in 2015. It’s an “..professional international association with a researcher and practitioner led community” and “was formed to provide a leading standard in PMO for Project, Programme and Portfolio Office practitioners”

When we first heard about the Association and the work they were doing we jumped at the chance to get involved and bring the association’s certification courses to the UK.

There’s a few reasons why we got excited:

The core certifications they offer are totally focused on the PMO practitioners role.

There are three levels for different levels of PMO practitioner.

The certification courses provide a plug for the big gap that exists in learning and development for PMO practitioners.

The certification courses are based on research AND practitioner knowledge and experience.

It’s a ‘leading’ standard – in other words the content is updated much more frequently than ‘lagging’ standards (think PMI BoK etc).

It provides a framework for PMO – a PMO lifecycle which practitioners on the course can work through.

It brings together project, programme and portfolio knowledge as well as business and organisational knowledge too.

There has been a lack of learning and development options available for PMO practitioners of late – the P3O certification has pretty much been the only direct PMO choice in the marketplace.

With the introduction of the AIPMO certifications, PMO practitioners now have additional options based on where they are in their career.

Here’s an overview of the three certifications available:

AIPMO IPMO-Foundation

The first level of AIPMO certification courses is the IPMO-Foundation.

This is aimed at the experienced PMO Analyst, Project Support Officer or Co-ordinator.

The focus in this certification is the PMO service catalog. It covers the PMO lifecycle framework and gets into the detail of how to design and implement PMO services and functions.

Never before have we seen a course that actually covers the practical elements of introducing and running services in the PMO.

Here’s an overview of what the course contains:

Understand how PMOs fit into the world of projects, programmes and portfolios

Understand the benefits of viewing PMOs in terms of services

Know what are PMO capabilities, how they are constructed in terms of competencies, tools and techniques

Understand the PMO lifecycle framework and which phases and processes are most relevant for a PMO team member

Learn the key PMO tools and techniques including templates you can take back to your organisation

Understand what are the key documents PMO use to run, monitor and control PMOs

How to be confident in knowing what to do in the majority of types of PMOs

AIPMO IPMO-Practitioner

This is aimed at the experienced PMO Manager – who is managing a single Project, Programme or Portfolio Office.

If you’re working in the most popular PMO there is right now – the Programme Management Office – this is the certification course for you.

The focus in this certification course is building and running PMOs as a manager. It uses the PMO lifecycle framework as a base to cover designing and implementing PMOs; building the right capabilities for a successful PMO and transforming and energising PMOs.

This course is ideal to do after either completing the IPMO-Foundation level or P3O. In lots of ways, this course picks up where P3O finishes – it’s about the practicalities of setting up and running PMOs whereas P3O tends to look at the best practice without the practical guidance.

Here’s an overview of what the course contains:

Understand the value of high performing PMOs

Describe the different roles of PMOs in a single and networked context and across different levels of the organization

AIPMO IPMO-Expert

The final level of the core IPMO certifications is the Expert level – the IPMO-Expert.

This level is aimed at the Enterprise PMO Manager or PMO Consultant. This is for the PMO practitioner who is responsible for the whole of the enterprises’ PMOs or you’re advising organisations on the structure and set up of PMOs for their businesses.

The focus on this certification course is still the PMO lifecycle framework – it’s the base for exploring how to architect an organisation’s entire network of PMOs; ensuring alignment with the organisation’s strategy; designing and setting up multiple PMOs; success and failure factors and maturity of PMOs.

Here’s an overview of what the course contains:

Understand the value of high-performing PMOs

Learn how to create and implement an enterprise PMO strategy

Describe the different roles of PMOs in a single and networked context and across different levels of the organisation

The AIPMO certifications have given PMO practitioners new learning and development opportunities to take a look at. For the first time we’re seeing a programme that spans the entirety of modern day PMO practice. With the combination of research and practitioner led knowledge and practical experience which informs the certifications – and the leading standard capability of incorporating new practice and research means we have something in the profession that enables us to be equipped for the ever-changing future of project-based working in businesses.